I have mentioned many times in the past that Christendom is dying the death of a millions cuts. And in a post yesterday, I observed that corporate pressure/backing can be a huge means of advancing any cultural agenda, especially a radical one. Well, the two come together again to demonstrate just how strongly the culture has turned against Christian morality and towards a new perverse paganism in a new “Whopper” from Burger King that celebrates sodomite pride week:

Burger King has concocted yet another way to have it your way: a gay pride burger.

The Proud Whopper, as it’s called, comes wrapped in a rainbow colored wrapper with this inscription: “We are all the same inside.” It will be sold through Thursday at one Burger King restaurant on San Francisco’s Market Street, that was at the heart of the route for last weekend’s 44th annual San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade……

……”It showcases who we are as a brand,” says Fernando Machado, senior vice president of global brand management at Burger King. “It shows how we, as a brand, believe in self-expression.” [Up to and including gross moral perversion]

The inspiration behind the unusual burger wrap and video, he says, is Burger King’s localized efforts to put into motion actions that support its recently-tweaked slogan: “Be Your Way.”

The move also demonstrates BK’s desire to stay connected to its base of Millennial customers. Gay rights is an issue that reverberates strongly with many Millennials both inside and outside the U.S. Burger King also was a sponsor of San Francisco’s gay pride parade. Machado says that’s the first time Burger King has sponsored a gay pride parade in the U.S., though it may have sponsored some outside the country.

Bah, I have no use for Burger King anyway.

We are witnessing an unspeakable madness sweep through the culture. Depraved acts most people would never contemplate for themselves, have now been sanitized by a deliberate propaganda campaign and always compliant media so that people no longer see moral perversion when they see sodomites, they see……themselves. But this is a totally false image. Claiming over and over same sex couples are just slightly different versions of Ozzie and Harriet doesn’t make it so, and is in fact an image based almost entirely on lies and dramatic misrepresentations of what those couples (and they aren’t even true couples in the vast majority of cases), and how they conduct themselves. Soon – or already – those who cling to the “old” beliefs shared by essentially everyone not even 10 years ago will be told they – WE – are mad, because we aren’t on board with new think. It is actually a form of psychological torture, and its being carried out on a mass scale.

It’s easy to see why so many just roll along with whatever the culture/government/media complex tells you is the “truth” today. That tendency is precisely why I’ve had Orwell and Huxley so much on my mind this year – I’ve even gone back to the original, Yevgeny Zemyatin – to try to gain more insights into mass popular totalitarianism. Corporations can serve a double purpose, both reacting to changes in cultural perception while also helping push them further along and solidify them. We’ve seen several examples now of either corporations persecuting their employees for their Christian beliefs, supporting perversion openly, or sending not-so-subtle hints that they strongly prefer you think this way, rather than that.

I know I’ve been beating on this topic a bunch of late, but get ready! It’s not going to be fun for the faithful, but, ultimately, martyrdom is the seed of the future Church.

Black masses have been around for centuries. Fallen man always strives to find new ways to hate his Creator, Lord, and Savior. We’re sick. But we haven’t seen such open promotion of what has always been a horribly offensive act until now. There was the possible black mass in Cambridge, Mass, a few months ago, and now another. This time, apparently, in Oklahoma City, of all places:

A ticketed “Black Mass” is slated to occur Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center, according to the Civic Center website.

Today, Archbishop Paul Coakley expressed his astonishment and disappointment at this event and called on community leaders to reconsider whether it is an appropriate use of public space.

“For more than 1 billion Catholics worldwide and more than 200,000 Catholics in Oklahoma, the Mass is the most sacred of religious rituals,” the archbishop said. “It is the center of Catholic worship and celebrates Jesus Christ’s redemption of the world by his death and resurrection. In particular, the Eucharist – which we believe to be the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ – is the source and summit of our faith. [sic……I’d prefer Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ – the Source and Summit. The Church did actually put down several major heresies that tried to reduce or eliminate Christ’s Divinity, a tendency we see rampant today. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful to see a bishop use these terms, and this is a quibbling thing, but hey, I’m a quibbler.]

“That’s why we’re astonished and grieved that the Civic Center would promote as entertainment and sell tickets for an event that is very transparently a blasphemous mockery of the Mass,” he continued. “The ‘Black Mass’ that is scheduled for the Civic Center in September is a satanic inversion and distortion of the most sacred beliefs not only of Catholics, but of all Christians. [It’s just about the most blasphemous thing imaginable]

“In a spirit of hope, I ask those who are allowing this event to reconsider whether this is an appropriate use of public space. We trust that community leaders – and, in particular, the board members of the Oklahoma City Civic Center – do not actually wish to enable or encourage such a flagrantly inflammatory event and can surely remedy this situation.

“If the event does move forward, we will have to consider other peaceful, prayerful and respectful options to demonstrate our opposition to this publicly supported sacrilegious act. [Rioting seems to work well for the muslims.]

“In the meantime, I call on all Catholics in central and western Oklahoma – as well as all men and women of good will – to pray for a renewed sense of the sacred and, in particular, to pray that the Lord might change the hearts and minds of the organizers of this event.”

What I mean by post-Christian is this: there is no way satanists could have rented a public facility to host such an event 60 or 100 years ago. It would not have been tolerated. The civil authorities would not have dared, and most of them were Christian/Catholic themselves. The few satanists that existed then had to literally skulk around in the dark to perform their perverse acts of God-hatred.

We’re not talking about Boston. This is Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is one of the most consistently, profoundly conservative states in the nation. That such would occur there – that civil authorities would see no problem with hosting such a barbaric, blasphemous act (and again, do they have any real idea of what a true black mass really entails? Do they want a ritual rape of a baptized virgin taking place at their civic center?) – is simply staggering.

Crazy can obviously occur anywhere. This group that wants a black mass has petitioned to have a statue of satan installed at the Oklahoma capitol in response to the Ten Commandments displayed there. The organizer and leader of this satanist group is a registered sex offender. It is beyond nuts that this travesty was approved. It shows at the very least a huge callousness towards the Faith, if not a growing, open hostility towards it.

Some contact info from the blog previously linked below:

The Public Information Officer for the Civic Center is Jennifer Lindsey-McClintock. You can email her here or call (405) 297-3882 to let her know your opinion on the matter. The main business office number for the Civic Center is (405) 297-2584. The Civic Center is also on Twitter – @okcciviccenter.

[So get this – one of the board members of the civic center hosting this sacrilege is regional vice president of a………<cough>……..Catholic hospital chain

Another board member is Joe Hodges of St. Anthony Hospital. The hospital’s mission statement is: “Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God.” St. Anthony Hospital is part of SSM Healthcare, a Catholic organization which was founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. Hodges is regional vice president for SSM. You can contact SSM about Mr. Hodges role on the board of the Civic Center by calling (314) 994-7800 or emailing them here. You can also possibly contact Mr. Hodges directly at the hospital by calling (800) 227‑6964 or the main number at (405) 272‑7000.

Of all our affairs there is none more important than that of our eternal salvation, on which depends our happiness or misery for eternity.”One thing is necessary” (Saint Luke, X:22). It is not necessary that we should be rich, honored, or in the enjoyment of good health, but it is necessary that we should be saved. For this end alone has God placed us in the world; and woe to us if we do not attain it!

St. Francis Xavier said that the only good to be obtained in this world is salvation; and the only evil to be dreaded, damnation. What matter if we are poor, despised, or infirm? If saved, we shall be happy forever. On the contrary, what does it avail to be great, or to be monarchs? If lost, we shall be miserable for eternity.

O God, what will become of me? I may be saved, and I may also be lost. and if I may be lost, why do I not resolve to adhere more closely to Thee?

My Jesus, have pity on me. I will amend my life. Give me Thy assistance. Thou hast died to save me, and shall I notwithstanding, forfeit my salvation?

Have we already done enough to secure salvation? Are we already secure of not falling into hell?

“What shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?” (Saint Matthew, XVI:26) If he lose his soul, what will compensate him for its loss?

What have not the Saints done to secure their salvation? How many kinds and queens have renounced their kingdoms and shut themselves up in cloisters! How many young men have left their country, and have gone to live in deserts? How many young virgins have renounced marriage with great ones of the world, to go and give their lives for Jesus Christ? And what do we do?

O my God, how much has Jesus Christ done for our salvation! He spent thirty three years in toil and labor; He gave His Blood and His Life; and shall we, through our own fault, be lost?

O Lord! I give Thee thanks, for not having called me out of the world when I had forfeited Thy Grace. had I then died, what would have become of me for all eternity?

God desires that all should be saved’ “He will have all men to be saved.” (1 Tim II:4) If we are lost, it will be entirely our own fault. And this will be our greatest torment in hell.

St. Teresa says that even the loss of a trifle, of an ornament, of a ring, when it has happened through our own carelessness, occasions us the greatest uneasiness. What a torment, then, will it be to the damned to have willfully lost all -their souls, Heaven, and God!

Alas! death approaches; and what have I done for life eternal?

O my God! for how many years have I deserved to dwell in hell; where I could not repent, nor love thee! Now, that I can do both, I will repent and will love Thee with my whole heart, and truly convert my soul.

This is what is necessary for salvation: observing all God’s Commandments. Yes, love for our fellow man is absolutely key, but love of God com
es first. That means love for, and submission to, His Law. He has revealed His Law to us very clearly. He has given us great Saints – and even Himself – to guide us. He has given us Sacred Scripture, but even more importantly, the infallibly communicated Tradition that predates Scripture and constitutes the handing on of God’s literal Truth from generation to generation.

Love is not sentiment. Love it not indifference. Love is not false tolerance that pretends that sin is not. Love is sometimes hard. Love sometimes causes great pain. But all for the greater good, for the only thing that matters, in fact: eternal salvation.

Love is a Person, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity and He who said: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Saint John, XIV:15) One of those Commandments, stressed in Old Testament and New, is that sodomy (and sapphos) are incredibly offensive sins to God, sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.

Pray for the lost souls that inhabit fallen parishes where error abounds and Truth is not just forgotten, but actively derided. Blind guides, indeed.

The most difficult person in the world to convert, according to a great priest I know who has converted many, many improbable individuals, is the invincibly ignorant/badly formed Catholic. That is why Catholic schools are such utter disasters – once people hear from one they believe to be an authoritative source in the Church that this sin is not a sin, or that the Church “doesn’t believe that anymore,” convincing them otherwise takes a great moral miracle.

You may think the lede hyperbole, but Michael Voris has found a parish in NYC where that is most precisely the case. St. Francis of Assisi parish, which prides itself on its inclusiveness, tolerance, and understanding, has no room for orthodox Catholics who say uncomfortable things. “All are welcome…..”…..so long as your highest concern is serving the sexular pagan indifferentist agenda, rather than that terrible ol’ uninclusive, intolerant, divisive and “hurtful” Catholic Faith.

Why was the early Church persecuted? It was not persecuted because it posited a new God for the Roman pantheon – new “gods” were admitted every time Rome conquered a new territory. The Church was not persecuted because it said God was the best of all the “gods” – numerous religions perfectly acceptable to Rome made the same claim.

No, the Church was violently, relentless and cruelly persecuted because She made claims that were totally unacceptable to pagan Rome, just as they are unacceptable to the neo-pagans of today. The Church said that there was only ONE God, that He had become Incarnate in Jesus Christ, and that ALL the other “gods” were false. Not just false, but demons. The Church also said the emperors were not gods, which made the emperors pretty mad, and further the Church made plain that many common Roman behaviors were gravely offensive to the One True God and had to be stopped. That included the current “America’s Most Popular Sin!!,” sodomy.

So from the very beginning, the Church was not inclusive, She was, from the point of view of the Romans and others, maddeningly exclusive. How dare a Church claim it alone had ALL the Truth and was established by the only True God in the flesh?!? What kind of insane cult would make such claims? And so the persecutions rolled.

We confront a frighteningly similar situation in the culture today. The vast majority of people in the West, led astray by centuries of endarkenment anti-Church rhetoric and erroneous notions of “rights” and “liberty,” now confront the concept of orthodox Christianity with profound hostility. “Who are these alien people who really believe this stuff? Why can’t they just get along with the rest of us? What is the matter with them?”

It’s the same “matter” that has always existed when the Church exists in a hostile culture. What is very much different today, is that for the first time in Her history the vast majority of those purporting to be Catholic now think indistinguishably from the anti-Catholic Romans of old.

And those of us who strive to be openly faithful are most manifestly not welcome in their parishes.

UPDATE: Quick update to refute a rejoinder which is likely to come. Some may say, no, this parish just doesn’t like Michael Voris. They only do not like him because he puts himself out there and is known. But I can assure you that should they know me, or many of you, and our beliefs – especially if we argue those beliefs publicly – we would be equally unwelcome.

I almost said this in the original post, but I’ll say it now: surveying all the wreckage of the past 50 years, I find it increasingly difficult not to conclude that a new religion was not unleashed on the world about 50 years ago, and that this new religion is implacably hostile to the old. That’s a very disconcerting thought to have, but it is also an extremely difficult one to put away.